Notes from the Video

• 508 B.C: Athens, citizens overthrew their rulers and demanded freedom
• Cleisthenes: thought ordinary people should have rights and power 
• Born 570 B.C
• He was taught he was an aristocrat
• 600 B.C aristocrats controlled Athens
• Reading and writing was slim 
• Age expectancy was 15 years old 
• Impossible for one ruler for Greece 
• It was made of city-states
• Sparta: lives around war
• Cleisthenes time, they controlled the surrounding area 
• Pisistratus shows up with a tall girl
• Says she is a goddess: Athena
• Demands power because he brought a goddess
• Was a tyrant
• He needed to find allies to control the power
• Turned to Athenians
• Taxes reduced and free loans were given
• This encouraged people to work on their own
• Greek land produced good olives
• Vase
• Potters worked at the "Red Light District" : sketchy part of town, prostitutes worked there
• Potters were low ranked in society
• Used everywhere- transportation or kitchen
• Painting became detailed
• Potters wanted to out do each other
• Ordinary Athens were shown power 
• 527 B.C Pisistratus died
• Son took over, Hippias
• 514 Hippias's brother was killed
• This made him not trust the Athenians which caused them to lose their power and freedom
• Cleisthenes wanted to over rule Hippias
• Hippias was banished 510 B.C
• Cleisthenes was the most heroic man
• 776 B.C : Olympics
• Competed every 4 years
• Any Greeks could compete
• Arete mean greatness 
• All Greeks would come together and watch
• Fight for power no matter what
• Isagoras
• Went against Cleisthenes
• Turned to outside from Athens to Spartans 
• Spartans vs Athens
• Cleisthenes was thrown out
• 508 B.C: Revolution 
• 3rd day on Acropolis, Isagoras gave up
• 1st time people turned on government and seized power
• Turned to Cleisthenes
• Ostracized means thrown out of town/ banished
• Cleisthenes is back
• There was an area to discuss the future: everyone on social rank could speak it was called the agora 
• Came together every 9 days
• Democracy: used pebbles to vote
• 490 B.C 
•  Phidippides ran to warm Athens the Spartans wouldn't help
• ran 140 miles in 2 days 
• Persian Empire had the greatest power- tyranny
• They saw Athens gaining power and needed to destroy them
• Darius, the tyrant of Persian Empire
• Hoplites were depended on to defend Athens 
• Greeks won the fight against the Persians 
• Themistocles 
• learned his leadership in Athens
• Savior of the city
• He knew the Persian Empire would come back to fight
• Created the most useful weapons
• Trireme: state of the art war ship, very expensive
• 483 B.C: found silver
• Athenians wanted to divide it among themselves
• Themistocles wanted to use it to build the triremes ships 
• Greatest navy with 200 triremes 
• 486 B.C Darius died and his son took over, Xerxes 
• 480 B.C Athenians heard of war
• Panic ruled the city
• Sent a messenger to the oracle to determine their fate 
• Athenians abandoned Athens; Persia came and burned it down
• Themistocles plan was to fight in a narrow strip of water in between Greece and Salamis 
• In the end Athens won, Persia lost 200 ships
• It was a good time to build a new empire
• Delos (Delian League)
• Athens empire, organization to defend 
• Trading-everywhere
• "Big Apple" of Mediterranean was Athens
• Diverse goods from around the Mediterranean 
• Ostracized 
• Name on shard of pot, the most frequent name is ostracized
• Themistocles was ostracized even though he lead them to power   
• He died in Persia after wandering from state to state 
• Pericles: the new leader of Athens   
• Proposed a new Acropolis, a temple to Athena
• Made in 15 years
• Parthenon, mark of wealth and power
• Divorced his wife and lived with an "escort" 
• Theater
• First entertainment
• Tragedies
• Built in every major Greek city 
• Oedipus 
• Play in which a man is told from an oracle that he will kill his father, marry his mother, and won't be able to rule
• Fatal flaws
• Hubris: people in power who are too arrogant and believe they can't get into trouble  
• Socrates 
• Used understanding to see the world
• "The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates 
• Pericles wanted war with Sparta because of his hubris 
• Closed Spartan's port for food and good (isolated them)
• Plague in Athens during attack on Sparta
• Killed 1/3 of Athens
• Pericles got infected and died after 6 months
• 416 B.C an island in Sicily wanted protection
• Socrates
• Arrested for undermining the state religion and corrupting youth's minds
• Could defend himself but was timed by a water clock
• He demanded free dinner for life for all the work he did
• Was found guilty and had a death sentence
• Could have ran away with his friends but denied 
• He died for his principles